Relay For Life at FSU kicked off with a meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 3. / Jordana Bilavdello/FSView

Written by

Olivia Wilson

Contributing Writer

Relay for Life at FSU—a branch of the American Cancer Society’s overnight fundraising walk—kicked off the 2012-2013 year with a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 3. The group has many events planned for October as well as the whole year.

The kickoff meeting featured appearances from FSU cheerleaders, the Golden Girls, food from Burrito Boarder and Kona Ice and a performance from FSU’s Acabelles. Attendees were given an opportunity to sign their teams up for Relay for Life and purchase T-shirts to benefit the club.

On Thursday, Oct. 4, Tijuana Flats on Pensacola Street will host the group from 6 to 9 p.m., donating 10 percent of the proceeds from the night directly back to Relay for Life.

On Oct. 19, there will be a fundraising event at Potbelly’s during happy hour. Two dollars of each cover charge will be given to Relay for Life and there will be six stations for people who intend to participate and donate more money. Upon completing all six stations, participants will receive a T-shirt that says “I can keep you up all night,” explaining the overnight run of Relay for Life.

FSU football players will also attend the event at Potbelly’s, wearing bras to help support breast cancer awareness. Anyone who attends will have the opportunity to take a picture with the players wearing their bras.The group hopes to raise around $2,500 dollars through that fundraiser alone. The ultimate event each year is an 18-hour walk and fundraiser to help fund research for cancer. This year, FSU’s is themed “Party for the Cure” and will take place on April 5-6 at the new Rec SportsPlex.

Even though it may seem like a big party each year, FSU Relay for Life President Lexi Shahnasarian still keeps the cause close to heart.

“I started doing Relay for Life freshman year,” said Shahnasarian. “Cancer is really something that I’ve kind of grown up around and so when I had the opportunity to be on Relay for Life and fight back against cancer, I definitely wanted to get involved.”This year, the group aims to raise $225,000 during the main event. FSU is ranked first in size of Relay for Life events in Florida and sixth in the entire nation. Last year, they raised $194,000.

This year, the executive board has decided to dedicate to every ’Nole who cannot fight for cancer anymore and those ’Noles that are currently struggling with cancer.“We just had one of our top Relay-ers actually die from brain cancer about a month ago, so this year we’re dedicating the event to people like him, Seminoles who are not able to compete in Relay and are fighting cancer,” said Shahnasarian.

LIT Nightclub will be donating a portion of money from their covers on Thursday nights throughout the year and the group will be looking for other potential sponsors and donators throughout the year.

They will also host an event in November at the Askew Student Life Center to provide information about lung cancer research and prevention, partnering with the Great American Cancer Smoke Out. Among other events, the group plans to have a smoke-free lung and a smoker’s lung at the SLC in order to illustrate the damage done from smoking and at midnight they plan to screen the film 50/50 in the SLC theater.